VI Triathlon Federation was very pleased by the turnout of 15 two-person teams to the Island Hoppers Race, which took place on Sunday morning near Salt Restaurant on St. Croix’s south side. The unusual format of the run/bike leap-frog event proved to be appealing to local athletes who were longing for some outdoor fun. The event was the first event since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All participants were required to wear a face-covering until the official start of the race. To make the event more fun, participants were encouraged to wear costumes or team themes to match their masks.
Right off the starting line at Café Kaleidoscope, the strongest cyclists got a lead on the rest of the field. Kasey Canton was the first to arrive to Transition 1 at Tide Village, followed by Mikey Dizon-Bumann and Danielky Cedeño, all of whom are “regulars” at the VI Cycling Federation races. After dropping the bikes, the leg 1 cyclists began to run a flat section then up the very long, challenging and rocky Spring Gut Road. The runners from leg 1 arrived to T1 and picked up the bikes and headed in the same direction and up Spring Gut Road.
By Transition 2, Team Bohlke Flight Crew (Billy and Julie Sommer) had caught up to Team Triathlon (Mikey and Stephen Swanton), but Mikey was able to get on the bike faster to begin leg 3, a long descent of the south side of Spring Gut Road. Mikey put a minute on Billy by T3 at Castle Nugent. Mikey and Billy realized that the official team time is taken when the second teammate crosses the line (their bikers), so they relaxed their duel for the final leg to the finish. Stephen cruised in before Julie in a time of 47:42. Julie was second in 51:21; Team Halloween (Blake Schluter and Alejandro Ashe) was third in 52:31.
There were seven all-male teams, seven all-female teams and one mixed team. The Good Hope Country Day School (GHCDS) Panthers (Cooper Crowther and Makari Matthew) brought out the largest support section.
Island Hoppers Full Results 10-25-20
For more information on multi-sport events on St. Croix, contact tcharper@yahoo.com.
